EAST WHITELAND — The terminal on Malin Road in the township that leaked an estimated 5,300 gallons of gasoline was repaired and reopened Monday morning after a cleanup effort over the weekend.

“At this point, it seems that the incident is pretty much over, and it’s up to Buckeye to finish the cleanup with oversight from the (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection),” said township Fire Marshal Ken Battin.

David Boone, a manager of Buckeye Partners, said the bulk of remediation is completed, and the area will be checked to see if further remediation is necessary. Testing on the surrounding area has begun and will continue throughout the week, Boone said.

The DEP has responded to the gasoline spill in East Whiteland over the past three days, DEP community relations coordinator Deborah Fries said Monday.

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“We had staff on site on Saturday and Sunday, and were out there again today to observe the progress that’s being made with containment and cleanup,” Fries said.

According to Boone, Buckeye was working with a contractor, Lewis Environmental, to clean up the spill.

“In cases like this, the responsible party hires someone to handle the cleanup,” said Fries. “We are just monitoring.”

The spill began around 3:30 p.m. Saturday and was discovered by a Buckeye Energy Services employee. The failure of a strainer vessel in the terminal’s vapor recovering unit process piping was blamed for the spill after an initial investigation, according to Buckeye. The company said the failed strainer vessel has since been replaced.

Boone said the cause of the strainer vessel failure remains under investigation.

Officials said the gasoline, which leaked into a storm sewer, did not impact Little Valley Creek, which eventually turns into the ecologically important Valley Creek.

“As of today, when our water quality specialist visited the site, he surveyed the stream and saw no problems. Booms and coffer dams are in place, and hay bales have been added to prevent runoff from rain,” Fries said. “Contaminated soil in the retention pond will be excavated. There are two vac trucks on standby and the site is secure.”

Although the spill did not affect residents living nearby, some businesses along Lancaster Avenue, or Business Route 30, had to shut down Saturday, while others were affected by road closures due to the cleanup.

Officials said there were no fires or reported injuries.

In a statement, Buckeye said the company’s emergency response and spill response contractors responded to the spill along with the East Whiteland Fire Department and the Chester County and Montgomery County Hazmat departments. The gasoline that entered the storm sewer was contained, the company said.

“We are very pleased and appreciative of the East Whiteland Fire Department’s response to the incident,” Boone said. “They did a fabulous job and it was a pleasure to work with committed professionals.”

According to Chester County Commissioner Ryan Costello, the Department of Emergency Services handled the majority of the communications efforts that took place after the spill. Costello said the county created a network of communication between the accident site, emergency response teams and the DEP. Some officials from the county also helped to contain the spill before it could get into Little Valley Creek, he said.

“Tax dollars go to emergency services, and a lot of what they do includes providing training and services,” said Costello. “A lot of training goes in and time is spent preparing for these type of incidents so that it’s a ‘professionally managed disaster.’ We should be thankful as a community that we have the people responding to these emergencies. We have governments on local levels that provide the training and support for those who are willing to handle these tasks.”

Costello said any actions taken against Buckeye would come from state agencies after an investigation.

“The county’s involvement would be on the emergency response elements and less on the enforcement and oversight,” he said.

After an investigation takes place, Costello says the county will look into any problems that may have caused the spill and see if there is any action the county can take to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.

Buckeye owns and operates refined petroleum products storage and truck loading terminals throughout the country, according to the company’s website. It is one of the nation’s largest wholesale distributors of refined petroleum products with a total terminal capacity of more than 3.5 million barrels.